A Semi-Daily Advocate of the Modern School, Industrial Unionism, and
Individual Liberty.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

I'm not sure I'm going to come up with a more articulate response than the above to the brand new recommendations of the brand new report of the Rhode Island Urban Education Task Force, particularly the section on "Innovation for Successful Schools." Two members of the task force, (the other) Tom Brady and Sharon "the days of allowing schools to pursue their unique brand of education are over" Contreras, have already created the most reactionary and hostile-to-innovation educational climate Providence has seen in twenty years. At least. Whatever.

I actually thought it would take about five years for someone to hand the School Board a report like this one after they dismantled every shred of autonomy or variety in the Providence School District's high schools (notwithstanding Classical, natch). Apparently I overestimated by four years and six months.

1 comment:

It's always been strange to me that the pitch is for differentiation in the classroom yet we're going the opposite way in terms of everything else. I keep thinking about paralleling this to evolution. I'm not sure the analogy holds but it seems that if schools are forced to be the same then it's essentially preventing "genetic mutations" that might result in superior schools. We'll achieve mediocrity at the cost of trying new things that might succeed.